Project management education: The human skills imperative

Academic pharmacist competencies in ordinary and emergency situations: content validation and pilot description in Lebanese academia

BACKGROUND

In the absence of a similar study in the Lebanese context, this study aimed to validate the content of the specialized competencies frameworks of academic pharmacists (educators, researchers, and clinical preceptors) and pilot their use for practice assessment in the context of multiple severe crises.

METHODS

A web-based cross-sectional study was conducted between March and September 2022 among academic pharmacists enrolled by snowball sampling using a questionnaire created on Google Forms.

RESULTS

The suggested frameworks had appropriate content to assess the competencies of academic pharmacists. Educators and clinical preceptors were confident in all their competencies except for emergency preparedness. Researchers had varying levels of confidence, ranging from moderate to high confidence for many competencies, but gaps were reported in fundamental research, conducting clinical trials, and pharmacy practice research (mean < 80). Educators and researchers relied primarily on experience and postgraduate studies, while clinical preceptors emphasized undergraduate studies to acquire their respective competencies. Continuing education sessions/programs were the least cited as a competency-acquiring venue across all roles.

CONCLUSION

This study could develop and validate the content of frameworks for specialized competencies of academic pharmacists, including educators, researchers, and clinical preceptors, in a challenging setting. The frameworks were also piloted for practice assessment, which could contribute to supporting effective performance and sustained development of practitioners and help link the skills and competencies pharmacists learn during their studies with those required for a career in academia.

Why Soft Skills Matter: Analyzing the Relationship between Soft Skills and Productivity in Workplace of Academic Library Professionals

This study aimed to analyze the effects of soft skills on the work productivity of academic library professionals in Pakistan. The study employed quantitative survey method. The data was collected through a self-compiled online questionnaire from academic library professionals, yielding a response rate was 83%. Findings of this study reveal that library professionals’ level of different soft skills, interpersonal, emotional intelligence, leadership, motivation, and communication is high, which indicates that they are proficient in soft skills. Results of correlation test used to examine the relationship between the variables, soft skills, and work productivity of library professionals disclose a significant relationship between variables across the study. Moreover, soft skills have profound effects on the work productivity of library professionals, and no difference is found in library professionals’ perceptions based on their demographic characteristics. Soft skills help librarians to manage and perform different jobs effectively. Based on the outcomes of the study, it is suggested that LIS schools, professional associations, and other organizations offering professional development programs should endeavor to develop soft skills among LIS students and professionals by incorporating necessary contents in LIS curricula and offering training sessions. The research paper is the first attempt to explore the relationship between soft skills and work productivity from the perspective of librarianship in Pakistan; it will make a unique contribution to the literature.

The Expectations of Project Managers from Artificial Intelligence: A Delphi Study

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are rapidly developing these days and are expected to impact the field of project management on multiple levels; however, there remains a high level of uncertainty regarding the effect that AI might have on project management practices. This article aims to address this topic based on a Delphi study with a panel of 52 project management experts who reflected on future potential AI applications for the project management Knowledge Areas. The article provides a visionary perspective that can be further translated into practical solutions in the near and far future to improve project management practices.

Gerenciamento de projetos em empresas juniores: análise do contexto gerencial brasileiro

As Empresas Juniores (EJs) contribuem para a formação profissional de graduandos por meio, principalmente, da realização de projetos, atuando também como uma fonte de acesso a soluções e novas tecnologias, em especial, para micro e pequenos empresários, sendo importante discutir o Gerenciamento de Projetos nessas organizações. Dessa forma, este estudo visa compreender as particularidades e as necessidades das EJs em relação ao Gerenciamento de Projetos e oferecer insights que possam contribuir com essas organizações. Para tanto, foi realizado um estudo de caso múltiplo com seis EJs, seguido de uma survey conduzida com EJs brasileiras com 12% de taxa de resposta. Foi possível identificar a importância de um bom diagnóstico organizacional, bem como as expectativas e as necessidades dos clientes para posterior realização dos projetos. Além disso, é fundamental um planejamento inicial bem estruturado do projeto, com escopo e cronograma definidos, mas que sejam passíveis de revisão quando necessário, sendo relevante a participação ativa dos clientes durante o projeto.

Analysis of factors affecting project communications with a hybrid DEMATEL-ISM approach (A case study in Iran)

One of the main factors in the success of projects is communications management and proper and timely distribution of information among all internal and external project stakeholders. Despite of emphasizing on the importance of project communications in the literature, there are few studies identifying factors influencing project communications. This research aims to address this shortcoming by identifying and determining sequences and relationships factors affecting project communications and their clustering. The informed communication strategy allows managers to structure the information flow in a better and more controlled manner and to avoid the costs caused by lack of effective and timely communication. The present study is conducted to help clarify the views of the organization's managers and project managers on project communications, and to identify factors affecting it and how they effectively communicate to successfully accomplish the projects. First a number of factors influencing project communications are identified on the basis of previous studies and interviews with experts and project managers working in oil, gas and power plant construction megaprojects in Iran. Then, these factors are analyzed by using the combination of fuzzy DEMATEL and Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) techniques. The relationships and sequence between the indicators are determined so that it can be effective in project communications planning and project success through providing an insight for senior managers and project managers.

Generation Z: Fitting Project Management Soft Skills Competencies—A Mixed-Method Approach

Generation Z is arriving in the workforce. Do these youngsters have the skills and traits to fit project teams? This study reviews the literature concerning project management competencies and the traits that are associated with Generation Z. To deepen the understanding of its members (Gen Zers) traits, we explore the self-awareness of their profile, strengths and weaknesses with an empirical study. We used a mixed-method approach, implementing a survey on a sample of 211 college students about to enter the labor market. Comparing our survey results with the literature, we identified differences that reveal some of the lack of awareness of Gen Zers about their traits. Further analysis also revealed a significant correlation between the most highlighted Generation Z traits and essential project management soft skills, pointing to Generation Z as a promissory asset in the project management field. However, other essential project management (PM) soft skills were not grounded in personality traits. Our findings, namely the lack of awareness and association results, suggest the need for further research on educational approaches and re-thinking and targeting education and training policies that could strengthen Generation Z soft skills. Our results also suggest reflections about whether the Gen Zers traits fit the PM competencies sought by organizations.

Assessment of Project Manager’s Competence in the Context of Individual Competence Baseline

This study’s aim is to determine the consistency of student opinions regarding the importance of individual skills in three areas—people, practice, and perspective—with expert assessment. The study group consisted of five-year students accredited by IPMA Poland. The team of experts was comprised of recruiters, project management lecturers, assessors, and information technology (IT) industry project managers. Our research shows divergences in the approach to key competence that a project manager should have. This is understandable, given the specifics of the comparison. However, the analysis that has been conducted and presented will allow the curricula to be revised. The subsequent evaluation of curricula should address the changes in the labor market. Education should provide key competences, especially as modern project management requires a full spectrum of competences and approaches. Besides experience, project management is the most frequently pursued competence that is required in terms of staff recruitment criteria. The research resulting figures may be useful for recruiters, certification institutions, and universities.

Application of project management tools and techniques to support nursing intervention research

Nursing research involves much planning and attention to details, yet novice and seasoned nurse researchers often overlook the day-to-day operations required to conduct research studies. Project management is a set of iterative steps that can facilitate the process of conducting nursing research. In this paper we aim to provide an overview of project management and identify ways in which its specific principles and strategies may be applied to facilitate nursing research. Here we give an overview of our current longitudinal study using a Solomon four-group design and illustrate how we applied strategies and tools from the project management literature. In addition, we offer descriptions and illustrations of several other project management tools that could have been used in specific phases of this research project. We encourage nurse educators and researchers to familiarize themselves with the principles of project management and consider using them in future studies.

Analyzing enablers and barriers to successfully project control system implementation in petroleum and chemical projects

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to analyze the interaction between the enablers and barriers to successful project control system (PCS) implementation in petroleum and chemical projects and to provide a knowledge-based foundation for the evaluation of the dominant factors of PCS success.

Design/methodology/approach

An integrated approach of interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (Matrice d’Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliquée à un Classement) were used. An expert group of industry professionals and academics was consulted at the initial stage as an input for the ISM methodology to explore the contextual relationships among the critical factors to PCS implementation in petroleum and chemical projects.

Findings

This study identifies three dominants enablers of PCS success: the technical skills of the project controller; explicitly defined roles of project team members; and an accurate work breakdown structure. Additionally, six dominant barriers to successful PCS implementation have been identified: lack of standard processes, vague contract deliverables, unclear project goals, unclear project milestones, disparate control system between owner and contractor and lack of information communication. Organizations in the petroleum and chemical sectors should put more effort into the development of these factors to optimize the implementation of PCS.

Research limitations/implications

A limitation of this current study is its focus on the petroleum and chemical sectors in Saudi Arabia. It is expected that the findings will have wider applicability, but further studies in different sectors and geographic regions should be undertaken to validate this assumption. In this study, a second validation expert group was used to ensure the reliability of the results as much as was possible. However, further studies could be completed to evaluate alternate classification schemes and to test the robustness of the expert consensus and techniques reported, in this study, including an increased number of experts.

Practical implications

The present study makes some practical contributions to the project delivery process. It provides different project stakeholders with a better understanding of the factors that improve PCS outcomes and helps project owners and contractors to evaluate the PCS used by both parties to understand how they might be aligned for successful project execution.

Originality/value

The successful implementation of PCS is a key contributor to the total project delivery process. Although there is growing attention on PCS as a critical project management tool in petroleum and chemical projects, the literature in project management shows that PCS implementation has not been taken up as much as originally anticipated. This paper will address this gap by focusing on improving the take-up of strategical PCS implementation through the identification of six dominant enablers and nine dominant barriers as driver factors of success.

Priming the Project Talent Pipeline: Examining Work Readiness in Undergraduate Project Management Degree Programs

Undergraduate education is emerging as a direct pathway into the previously deemed ‘accidental profession’ of project management. We introduce the concept of graduate work readiness and explore whether undergraduate project management degrees are imparting industry-required work-readiness attributes. Documentary analysis of 12 Australian bachelor’s degree programs identified that many (but not all) of the work-ready attributes taught are consistent with those sought by industry. The results revealed that graduates’ work-readiness profiles vary according to university employer reputation. The findings suggest the need for a more industry-consultative approach to the way universities prepare their graduates for the project-based workplace.

Key Competences of Information Systems Project Managers

Project managers have a main role in all kinds of projects, and information systems (IS) projects are not an exception. In order to perform their activities well, project managers need to develop several complementary competences, including technical, contextual and behavioral competences. In literature we find important references on the project managers' general competences as, for instance, the ICB from IPMA. However, very little attention has been paid to the eventually distinctive features of IS project managers. In order to identify the most important competences of these project managers, we carried out a questionnaire-based survey. The results show that the top 12 competences are: communication; engagement and motivation; project requirements and objectives; leadership; reliability; results orientation; conflict and crisis; project orientation; teamwork; interested parties; resilience (emerging as a new competence); and ethics. Furthermore, results indicated that the project management bodies of knowledge are suitable to characterize the IS project manager's competences.

An exploratory study of digital workforce competency in Thailand

Industry 4.0 and the digital age have dramatically influenced both information technology (IT) job characteristics and IT labor demand. Leaders in higher education must keep up with the situation and accelerate plans to produce graduates with the quality and preparation required to meet industry needs. But based on the existing demand gap, universities are eager to first know which skills the IT-related industries expect from new digital workers. This study, conducted in Thailand, explores the competency of the digital workforce, an issue that was identified as vital to the 2017-2021 national agenda. The research project was divided into two steps. Phase one was to study and identify essential competencies for the digital workforce by first reviewing the literature, then verifying these results through qualitative methodology. Thirty IT experts in IT and related industries were invited to interview sessions. Eventually, after content analysis, 24 competencies were presented. Phase two was to survey the competency expectations of IT experts by using the initial questions generated by Phase One's outcome. 260 questionnaires were analyzed. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was selected to cluster the digital workforce competencies that were found. Three significant categories were selected based on Eigenvalue, and the average results of demand were explained. Industries had most expected competencies in the Professional skills and IT knowledge category, followed by the IT technical category and IT management and support category. The top five competencies desired were lifelong learning, personal attitude, teamwork, dependability, and IT foundations. However, there were some slightly different requirements between the IT industry and IT in non-IT industries. The results presented a new perspective that is very useful to Thailand. The academic sector can use these results to shape IT curriculum in order to effectively respond to real demand. In addition, recent graduates or graduating students can study these conclusions and better prepare themselves for future jobs.

Project Management Competences by Teaching and Research Staff for the Sustained Success of Engineering Education

Projects have become an essential instrument for the success of universities. In a context of globalization and increasing complexity, they must sharpen their resourcefulness to face these challenges and adapt to this changing environment. To reach these objectives, they undertake a series of activities of a unique, concrete and temporary nature, not always technical but managerial ones. If universities work with people on projects in the production, transmission and dissemination of knowledge, then they link with society to solve its problems. For this reason, teaching and research staff (TRS) should promote a range of professional project management (PM) competences in different areas for the proper management of the projects in which they take part. Through a Delphi technique, a panel of twenty-four accredited teaching experts who are carrying out significant research and holding directive roles, measured the importance of acquiring and/or improving professional PM competences by their TRS. Consensus and stability reached after two rounds of consultation confirmed there are a series of crucial competences for the practice of relevant teaching and pioneer research. Results obtained are the basis for a gap plan that allows the TRS to participate in and/or lead university projects with greater self-confidence and personal motivation.

Competency profiles for lean professionals – an international perspective

Purpose

Requirements for business improvement professionals depend on different job characteristics. By focussing on lean management, the purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to provide a comprehensive conceptualisation of competencies relevant for lean professionals by comparing them to an existing project management competency framework; and second, to identify their similarities and differences in three different analysed countries.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper investigates 2,701 online published job advertisements in the USA, UK and Germany by means of a content analysis to compare and contrast the respective job profiles.

Findings

Main findings are similarities and differences in the specification and perception of lean professional’s roles among the three countries. Strikingly, four out of eight considered competency categories comprise 74 per cent of the profiles’ most relevant keywords. Additionally, with the help of a latent semantic analysis, 16 specific competencies can be summarised in a lean professional’s competency taxonomy.

Research limitations/implications

The collected data only represent a snapshot of lean professionals’ advertisements. Also, text mining results from job profiles could largely differ from other techniques like recruiter interviews or company surveys. Further research could use different methods or combine them to construct a more complete model.

Practical implications

Lean education and training as well as the respective candidate selection processes can benefit from these studies’ results.

Originality/value

Requirements and job contents for lean professionals have not been empirically researched on a comparable in-depth level before, even though their expertise is in high demand in any kind of business sector.

Critical IT Project Management Competencies

Academic computing curricula generally focus on teaching the specific technological skills expected of new graduates in their disciplines. Yet when it comes to hiring these graduates, behavioral skills (also called soft skills) such as communication and personal integrity are almost always rated as being more important than the technological skills. This mixed-method research project adds to the understanding of skill expectations required for new hires by providing information from a global sample of project management professionals. Both the quantitative and qualitative results are in accord with the vast majority of the extant literature in that behavioral skills were seen as more critical than technical skills. Implications and recommendations for educators, curriculum developers, and prospective graduates are discussed.

Management students – expectations and perceptions on work readiness

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the expectations and reality perspectives accrued in a preliminary management course and understand if they impart and embed real-world skills and develop work readiness.

Design/methodology/approach

Primary data collected for the research were qualitative. A total of six focus groups were conducted with a total of 52 students enrolled at a large metropolitan university in Australia. NViVO was used to code and analyse the data.

Findings

The study found that at the commencement of university studies, the expectations were simple like, making new friends, getting around the campus and settling well into the university culture, which over time extended to getting a part-time job, securing internships, memberships of associations, desire to participate in exchange programs and get work-ready by the close of the first year. The research outcomes show that those who held a part-time job while studying demonstrated a better understanding of the preliminary management subject matter taught in class and obtained better grades. Primarily, the preliminary management course did not specifically impart work-ready skills and it would be fitting to embed employability skills in the management curriculum from the commencement of their programs in the first year.

Research limitations/implications

Qualitative research is used to comprehend a research problem from the outlook perspectives of the local population it involves. The limitations of this methodology includes no objectively verifiable result, adept interviewing skills for interviewers, slow and time consuming during interviewing process and intensive category process also as qualitative inquiry is normally open-ended, the participants have more control over the content of the data collected.

Practical implications

The lack of skill mismatch and graduates who are not work-ready incurs significant economic and social costs. A number of policy implications emerge due to university-labour market links and skills mismatches and the impact on students and the labour market. The rise in unemployment and the skills mismatch seen after the economic crisis requires immediate attention. Job creation is crucial but so is the need to develop graduate with appropriate matching skills and qualities to do the job. Mandatory internships, apprenticeships and on-the-job training for university students would help. Governments can provide financial incentives and subsidies to organisations providing the above services and working cooperatively with the universities to get students work-ready. Universities must raise the educational requirements over time as jobs become more complex. Universities can build communities of practice with the assistance of this scheme to enable students to interact with the industry professionals. An additional year of vocational training could be recommended for the graduating students. This would help the young graduates to get work-related skills. Wheelahan et al. (2015) state that building better links between education and work can help provide a more rational approach to vocational development. They propose the use of vocational streams and productive capabilities in the education system and labour market to achieve this.

Social implications

This requires a combined effort from all stakeholders. A systematic approach needs to be adopted. First, the gap between the knowledge provided by the universities and the skills required by the employers need to be reduced. Second, the employers and the universities should keep a watch on the labour market and develop strategies to meet the dynamic requirements of the labour market collaboratively. Third, career guidance will help inform students make a career choice to match the labour market opportunities. This should be a part of the policy agenda for responding to the lack of work-ready graduates in the labour market.

Originality/value

Learning and teaching activities must include industry interface and engagement right from the first year at university. The main findings from this research indicated the need for better understanding of first-year students’ expectations. The two significant student expectations that emerged were “need for collaborations” and “industry interface”.

Managing Innovations: A Study of the Implementation of Electronic Medical Records in Dutch Hospitals

Innovation projects are prone to “escalation of commitment” (the tendency to continue projects even if it is clear that they will be unsuccessful). In this study, we introduce a construct measuring the escalation prevention potential (EPP) of innovation projects as perceived by individuals in the organization. EPP consists of three components: (i) goals, (ii) process, and (iii) ability, to shield projects from escalation to commitment. A survey was conducted among 1062 clinicians working in hospitals implementing Electronic Medical Records. The empirical results show that the three theoretical components of EPP sum up to a single measure. Four organizational characteristics of organizations (organizational routines, authentic leadership, employee involvement and support staff quality) explain a large share of the variation in EPP.

How Coaching is used and Understood by Project Managers in Organizations

Coaching can play an important part in meeting the challenges of project management (Berg & Karlsen, 2007). However, there remains a lack of research into project managers’ perceptions of coaching and the opportunities for using it. This grounded theory study explores the awareness and application of coaching in project management contexts. Analyses of interviews with 14 project managers have indicated that the provision of coaching opportunities is patchy. Findings confirm that organizational culture is important, that where project managers are involved with coaching this can lead to them becoming advocates, and emphasize the need for organizational intervention to maximize the benefits of coaching in this context.

The role of team reflexivity as a mediator between project management skills, task familiarity, procedural justice, and product performance

Even though the importance of team reflexivity in new product development (NPD) has been well noted in the literature, little attention has been paid to its determinants. Based on the resource-based view, this study proposes that project management skills, task familiarity, and procedural justice are useful to improve team reflexivity. As such, this study also examines the influences that these antecedents and team reflexivity have on NPD. A research framework is proposed along with 10 major hypotheses. To test these, data were collected from 186 team members from NPD teams in Taiwanese high-tech firms, and the partial least square results of confirm that all three of the proposed antecedents have direct impacts on team reflexivity and NPD performance. Task familiarity had the highest mediation effect on the influence of project management skills on NPD performance, followed by team reflexivity and procedural justice. Since previous studies largely ignored the effects of antecedents on team reflexivity and NPD performance, this study provides useful insights for both academics and practitioners.

The Impact of Emotional Intelligence, Project Managers’ Competencies, and Transformational Leadership on Project Success: An Empirical Perspective

Project stakeholders always strive for a successful project, hence there is growing concern about the factors that influence project success. Although the success of a project is influenced by various factors, project managers play a very important role. This study aims to examine the relationship and impact of construction project managers’ emotional intelligence (EI), managerial competencies, and transformational leadership style on project success. A total of 107 Pakistani construction firms were studied with a view to measuring the effects of these variables on the overall performance of construction projects. The results show that project managers with high emotional intelligence who bear the desired competencies and exhibit transformational leadership behavior are effective leaders and ensure higher success in projects than their counterparts. The findings will assist project sponsors in selecting the appropriate project managers for their projects.

Lessons for IT Project Manager Efficacy: A Review of the Literature Associated with Project Success

In the maturing IT project management space, there are still many debates about the skills needed to achieve success. This article presents a review and synthesis of project management literature that highlights the potential conflict in goals and the measurement of “success” from three perspectives: project outcomes, project management processes, and the project manager's influence. Our review indicates that each perspective of success, defined by various stakeholders at various points in time, shifts the focus onto different skills and knowledge. Drawing upon this tri-focal lens, we propose a shift in focus on success to the intersection, or “sweet spot of project manager efficacy.”

Project Management Learning: A Comparative Study between Engineering Students’ Experiences in South Africa and the United Kingdom

This study explores how engineering students studying project management perceive their learning experiences. To facilitate an understanding of the constituent components of engineering students’ experiences and to understand how these experiences influence preferred learning styles, a comparative study of university students studying engineering in South Africa and the United Kingdom is conducted. The study finds no significant demographic differences in learning experiences across the two student cohorts. However, the South African cohort reports higher levels of overall experiences. They also report higher usage of online learning materials but lower levels of blended learning and individual critical evaluation skills experiences.

Applying a Core Competence Model on Swedish Job Advertisements for IT Project Managers

Recruitments of IT project managers are costly and time-consuming, which makes it important to handle them effectively. IT project managers' key function in IT projects conveys that the prerequisites in such job ads become extensive and hard to satisfy because of overloaded descriptions. The organization's core competence (henceforth CC) requirements need to be decisive and explicitly expressed. Hence, each recruitment process should involve the defining of what the CC qualifications are. Advertisements were collected (2010-2013) and a CC lens was tested for assessment of CC criteria in order to get an indication of its value. The study's practical implication is an added understanding of the importance to discern what core competence/-s a specific project requires and furthermore to match those with the job requirements during the recruitment process. The implication for research is an inspiration for further development of methods for determining core competence criteria for recruiting IT-project managers.

Project Manager Profile Characterization in the Construction Sector in Bogotá, Colombia

This study aims to describe and evaluate the characteristics (educational background, training, skills, and experience) that make up the project manager profile in the construction sector in Bogotá, Colombia. This study is based on a project management literature review, expert interviews and surveys with a group of project managers in the construction sector, and comparisons between them. This evaluation aims to contribute to the development of a clearer definition of the project manager profile in the Colombian context. The identified project manager profile satisfies the essential desired characteristics with some particular weaknesses related to education and training in project management.

An Analysis of Interrelationships between Project Management and Student-Experience Constructs

This article seeks to explore, through the utilization of correlational analysis, how the parameters that impact the student experience may be interrelated. We found that the experiences of students studying project management appear to be heavily influenced by e-resource provisions and the actual experiences that the students are subjected to when using virtual learning environments (VLEs). These findings support previous research acknowledging that information and communications technology (ICT) plays an important role in teaching and learning project management. Students’ experience of interpersonal skills also correlated uniquely and significantly with other constructs, supporting the premise that learning is integral to the development of interpersonal skills. Discussion surrounds the interdependency of student experiences adding to their learning and how future research should consider larger and more diverse samples to establish exactly what constructs detract and/or add to their learning in project management, which could then contribute to pedagogical discourse in other disciplines.

PMP® Certification as a Core Competency: Necessary but Not Sufficient

This research seeks to investigate the relationship between project management certification and established project management core competencies in the IT industry. This study was conducted in two phases, the objective being to first identify those characteristics most common to the successful hire of project managers, from the perspective of IT recruiters. Once identified, the study sought to determine preference for these characteristics from the point of view of corporate IT executives. Two hypotheses were tested in an effort to determine the valuation of Project Management Professional (PMP®) certification as a core competency and as an indicator of project success. Both hypotheses were rejected, as results indicated that PMP® certification was the least valued of 15 core competencies and that there was no difference in project success rates between PMP®-certified project managers and uncertified project managers. In addition, recruiters’ and IT executives’ suggestions for improvement in the delivery of the project management body of knowledge are discussed.

Service Learning and Integrated, Collaborative Project Management

This article describes the development of an undergraduate course on project management that incorporates experiential learning and service learning as the primary course learning methodology to instill in students the Project Management Institute's nine Knowledge Areas. The discussed instructional method is a dynamic and participative pedagogy. The project management course content is traditionally structured around system needs and analysis identification, functional requirements analysis, project timelines, network analysis, and project progress metrics. Introduction of service-learning projects and experiential learning pedagogies provides a pragmatic approach for applying project management concepts. This article compares and contrasts the first three offerings of this course and provides lessons learned that may be helpful to others wishing to embrace project management realism in their course work. The purpose of this article is to encourage a hands-on method for learning the nine Knowledge Areas in the undergraduate classroom.