Using Project Deliverables and Project Management for Timely Completion of Student Projects

AbstractProject management is an increasingly important aspect of an employee's skill set. As students work their way through the undergraduate curriculum, there needs to be a process for them to learn more project specific skills, as most will work on some form of project in their post graduation careers. This paper outlines a method of incorporating the stages or domains of the project management life cycle into the requirements and deliverables of a student project in upper level business courses. The focus is on utilizing the stages of project management (Initiation, planning, executing, controlling, and closing) to enable students to have a more successful learning experience. Students working through this type project found that the structure and requirements in place forced them to stay on task throughout the semester, and prohibited them from falling behind, as a schedule was established in the planning stage that had to be adhered to. Through completion of projects as part of the classroom learning experience, students are better prepared to handle project activities in their careers, and are better able to blend into a team based project management effort. Feedback from students working in this learning format support the idea that using project management concepts within the semester project both enhances the learning experience and provides them with an improved skill set for future employment, even though the sample is limited and small.Keywords: project management; education; deliverables; planning; managementINTRODUCTIONThe ability to effectively transfer concepts from education and training environments to business applications is critical for future success. Business schools need to improve the methods of teaching and transferring instructional learning to real work applications. Bennis and O'Toole (2005) cautioned that business schools were placing more emphasis on research and rigor, and less on relevance and practicality. They warned that the trend leading away from using practical case approach to learning leads to a decrease in the ability of students to make pertinent decisions. In response to these warnings, more recent published works recognize and emphasize the needs to use real-world cases and projects, connecting business students with real businesses, with projects presented in the form of a client/consultant relationship (Heriot, Cook, Jones, and Simpson (2008); and Maleki (2009)).Business school students need more exposure to realistic problems and examples to better prepare them for careers in decision making roles. Cordoba and Piki (2012) studied the effects of group structure in learning project management skills, concluding that by focusing on group based activities and real world aspects of project management the learners benefited by gaining a better understanding of their roles within the group, and how it would apply in real projects. Assigning students in upper level courses real world based projects, including the use of project management concepts of Initiating, Planning, Executing, and Controlling/Closing, can help better prepare students for the real life project management environment that most future decision makers will face. By utilizing project deliverables in both individual and group projects, students are taken through the stages of project management, without the formalization of project management training.Most upper level undergraduate and graduate courses include learning objectives related to the students' ability to apply the learned material to real world type problems and situations. In order to teach students to gain such a level of understanding of the material, educators have looked at different methods of instruction, including activities and project based learning. Higher education has recognized the need to develop and incorporate alternative methods of learning and teaching into the overall curriculum (Weast, 1996). Providing more realistic classroom situations through activity-based learning like games, on-the-job-training and performance assessment is an attractive method of teaching (Gloeckner, Love, & Mallette, 1995). …