Project Management Laboratory

Code:

ESG0021

Acronym:

LGP

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Economics
OFICIAL	Engineering

Instance: 2023/2024 - 2S

Active?	Yes
Web Page:	https://moodle2324.up.pt/course/view.php?id=7189
Responsible unit:	Department of Informatics Engineering
Course/CS Responsible:	Master in Services Engineering and Management

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MESG	18	Syllabus since 2007/08	1	-	6	42	162

Teaching language

Suitable for English-speaking students

Objectives

To develop students’ software project management, team work, innovation and enterpreneurship skills in the context of software projects. Students will be capable of solving a vast diversity of problems, which may happen in the development of a technology based product or launch of a technology based company.

Learning outcomes and competences

This course unit will is a living lab, providing real world, hands-on learning experience on what is like to actually develop a technology based product or company. The expected end result is not a power-point presentation or a report, but a product and the corresponding business model. Students will have to talk to customers, partners, competitors, and will encounter the complexity and uncertainty of how a startup really works. Students will work in teams and learn how to turn good ideas into great products or great companies. Students will learn how to use a business model and how to validate it; learn how to manage innovation and bring innovation into their products or companies; learn how to plan and manage projects and develop products.

Working method

Presencial

Program

1. PROJECT MANAGEMENT: Starting a project; planning a project (hierarchical decomposition of a project; setting dependencies; resources assignment; time allocation; diagrams; project plan document; Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and Critical Path Method (CPM); project control and monitoring (project progress, earned value management, periodic report, re-planning); finishing a project (report, outcomes).
Areas of knowledge: project integration management, scope management, time management, cost management, quality management, human resources management, communication management, risk management, procurement management.

2. TEAMWORK
Teamwork, management styles and team organisation, team building, leadership and coaching, personal communication, meetings management, negotiation and conflict management, logbooks.

3. INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Lean startup and lean experimentation, proof of concept (PoC) and minimum viable product (MVP). 

4. METHODOLOGIES AND TOOLS
Project management methodologies and organisation of software teams: structured (RUP, TSP) and agile methodologies (XP, SCRUM); project life cycle and project phase; tools and standards.
Project management tools and teamwork.

5. EXPERIMENTATION
Application in real projects developed by medium-sized teams; application of methodologies and techniques.

Mandatory literature

S. McConnell; Software Project Survival Guide: How to Be Sure Your First Important Project Isn’t Your Last, Microsoft Press, 1997
Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister; Peopleware. ISBN: 0-932633-43-9
C. Jones; Software Engineering Best Practices, McGraw-Hill, 2010
W. Humphrey; TSP: Leading a Development Team, Addison-Wesley, 2006
Cópias de acetatos e textos fornecidos
IEEE Guide Adoption of PMI Standard A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge , IEEE Press, 2004
W. Humphrey; PSP: A Self-Improvement Process for Software Engineers, Addison-Wesley, 2005
Revistas técnicas e websites
Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur; Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers, Wiley, 2010. ISBN: 978-0470876411

Teaching methods and learning activities

The course unit is based on the work in medium-sized teams (7-8 members).

TP classes are used to present and discuss program topics. There will also be invited lectures, presentations by the teams and work outside the classroom.

Laboratory classes will be used to develop a project.

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

Designation	Weight (%)
Participação presencial	10,00
Trabalho prático ou de projeto	90,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Designation	Time (hours)
Elaboração de projeto	71,00
Estudo autónomo	21,00
Frequência das aulas	70,00
Total:	162,00

Eligibility for exams

Students have to actively participate in the development of projects. Besides they cannot miss more classes than allowed by the rules.

Calculation formula of final grade

Final Mark will be based on the assessment of groups’ participation and discussion in theoretical classes and on the work develop in practical classes. The assessment will be focused on the following aspects:
- Communication, image and market (presentations, client communication, promotion of ideas and products);
- Project management (goals accomplishment, individual and team dynamic)
- Attendance and participation in class and meetings (it will be kept a record and it will be assessed students’ performance)
- Product developed (value for the client and quality);
- Business model and exploitation of project results.

These aspects contribute to the Final Mark in the following percentages:
- Project management and teamwork: 45% of the Final Mark
- Product: 30% of the Final Mark
- Communication and market: 25% of the Final Mark

As for the individual assessment, it will be based on the final mark of the team, on the team self-assessment, the attendance and participation in class and meetings, and the professors’ opinion.

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

It is the same as for ordinary students.

Classification improvement

Students can only improve their marks in the following year by doing a new project, since this course unit does not comprise a final exam.

Observations

Important dates:
- 9.02.2024: First class; Presentation of the curricular unit; team and project presentation
- 16.02.2024: Project Kick-off meeting and first meeting with the client
- 15.03.2024: Intermediate presentations
- 24.05.2024: Project completion
- 29.05.2024: Final presentations and project closure