Unit information: Critical Issues in Project Management in 2024/25

Unit name	Critical Issues in Project Management
Unit code	MGRC30009
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. Lloyd Fletcher
Open unit status	Not open
Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units)	Principles of Project Management (Was Project Management, EFIM20015)
Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units)	None
Units you may not take alongside this one	None
School/department	School of Management - Business School
Faculty	Faculty of Social Sciences and Law

Unit Information

Why is this unit important?

Project Management plays an increasingly vital role in all organizations and on a global scale. To be successful in their operations and strategies, enterprises need projects to be managed effectively and efficiently. Well-conceived and managed projects can deliver significant economic and social benefits. But success is confronted by the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity that is typical of project contexts. These challenges have been amplified by rapid changes in markets and technology, regulatory and political systems, and global environmental and societal challenges. Organizations of all kinds thus seek to recruit people who are able to analyze, plan, and execute projects against this demanding backdrop. To do this effectively, such people must develop the theoretical grounding and practical wisdom that enable them to take a critical, rigorous, ethical, and responsible approach to projects. By taking this unit, you will develop your knowledge and skills towards those goals. This will enhance your appeal to organizations that need employees who can work with and through people using suitable methods and tools in the face of complexity and uncertainty in projects, operations, and strategy.

How does this unit fit into your programme of study

This unit builds on the ideas, methods, and tools introduced in Principles of Project Management. In doing so, it explores theory and its application in more depth and detail, revisiting concepts and cases with an increasingly critical eye. It is particularly suited to anyone seeking intellectual challenge and rigor in exploring and explaining problems of organizing in emergent contexts. And it is especially relevant for anyone considering a career in project management or related roles, or sectors and disciplines that engage heavily in projects, for example marketing, product development, entrepreneurship, ICT, management consulting, strategy, construction, or the public sector.

Your learning on this unit

An overview of content

We take a critical approach to project management by exploring key debates, controversies, cases, and challenges. Projects are diverse and numerous, and both theory and practice continue to develop at pace. Thus the specific topics and issues we study will vary each year; this ensures relevance to contemporary project management.

Sample topics that could be covered include: critical evaluation of classic tools; complexity crisis; mega project paradox; planning fallacy; projects vs. sustainability; emerging forms of contracting; social reality of projects; what people think of projects; cognitive psychology and projects; projectification and programification; the project profession and identity; historical and unconventional projects; critique of methodologies; projects in crisis.

How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit

(All contribute to intellectual and practical skills.)

You will:

1. Be able to research, organise, synthesise, and evaluate a complex, ambiguous, or overwhelming information as the basis for evidence-based analysis and decision making.
2. Gain confidence and competence in productively dealing with ambiguity, complexity, and uncertainty in organising and management situations.
3. Refine your problem-solving and critical analysis skills to diagnose cases and situations for resolution.
4. Develop skills in expressing and discussing complex ideas to inform others and advance understanding.
5. Be able to explain complex project management concepts and make connections between ideas to develop a robust, integrated grasp of projects management theory and practice.
6. Be able to compare and contrast emerging ideas, debates, and controversies in the field, and identify the key issues yet to be resolved in theory and practice.
7. Develop a deeper, well-rounded knowledge of the social and technical challenges and constraints on effective project management, contrasting the reality of complex and paradoxical situations with the often-unchallenged basic concepts, assumptions, and normative methods.
8. Expand your knowledge of what it is ‘like’ to manage projects in real situations, from the perspective of stakeholders and practitioners, and through the lenses of historical and contemporary cases.
9. Enhance your practical project management skills through exploring, experimenting, testing, and thoughtfully applying concepts, methods, and tools to plan and execute projects.
10. Refine your interpersonal skills to communicate, coordinate, collaborate, and cooperate with diverse stakeholders to tackle problems and deliver projects.
11. Reflect critically on how projects and your own project practice can impact or contribute to colleagues and society.
12. Assess and shape the ‘maturity’ of your project management practice through processes of critical reflection, continuous learning and improvement to develop the skills you need to be a successful, fulfilled, wise, and virtuous project practitioner.
13. Develop efficient and effective ways to manage your own time and resources, and to work collaboratively to organise the ‘time and materials’ of others.

Learning Outcomes

You will be able to:

1. Analyse & Decide: using critical reflection, analytical reasoning, and the evaluation of evidence, select and apply theory and practice to make decisions about complex or ambiguous project situations.
2. Articulate & Argue: Clearly, critically, and systematically explore, discuss, and explain scholarly debates, complex concepts, and project situations to reach conclusions.
3. Relate & Perform: Develop pragmatic and reflective interpersonal skills to cooperate, communicate, coordinate, and collaborate efficiently and effectively with and through colleagues.

How you will learn

How you will learn

Overall, teaching is focused on enabling you to explore theory and apply it to novel problems, encouraging you to build the confidence to experiment with ideas and develop new ones. Students will optimise their learning by being self-motivated and independent learners who are not expecting to be spoon-fed.

We encourage you to enrich your critical analytical skills by applying them to both theory and practice, and at the same time to develop your communication and collaboration skills. To this end, teaching is focused on active and student-focused learning, not passive lectures. Thus classes are designed to be interactive, where students prepare in advance through readings, research, mini lectures, and other asynchronous learning activities. This sets the platform for learning activities in seminars where concepts and methods are applied, such as through case studies, problem analysis and resolution, debates and discussions on key issues in scholarship and practice, games and simulations, experiments, application of practical tools to problems, learning from project practitioners or guest speakers, field trips, individual and group presentations.

Contemporary issues, topics, and projects will influence curriculum content each year to ensure it is fresh and relevant. The unit is also intended to be flexible, adapting to student interests and emerging issues in project management. Thus students are encouraged to design and deliver their own learning activities in co-creative collaboration with teaching staff.

We encourage an active, collaborative, and trustful classroom environment where critical reflection and robust but respectful scholarly debate are norms. We therefore expect all students to be prepared for class and to participate fully in order to optimise their learning. Tutors will facilitate and guide learning activities, and support students in engaging with this approach.

How you will be assessed

How you will be assessed

Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):

We take a dialogic approach to learning. This means encouraging a ‘learning conversation’ between staff and student where feedback and reflection (in both directions) is done early and often to nurture an open and caring learning environment.

• As part of group coursework, seminar tutors will provide ongoing guidance and feedback on your work progress. This helps you reflect on and improve your personal practice and group project before you submit it for summative assessment.
• Both in person during in-class and asynchronously, tutors will provide opportunities for you to reflect on your learning and receive feedback on interim work. Throughout, you will be encouraged to ask questions and raise concerns in order to strengthen your knowledge and understanding.
• All learning activities in class or online are designed to help you practice your critical analytical approach to problem solving, engagement with scholarship, and exercise your interpersonal skills to develop a strong foundation for summative assessments.

Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):

These are the summative assessments:

• Individual coursework, worth 60% of final mark. The structure and topic will vary year to year, and may include (but is not limited to) one or more of the following: research and analysis of project cases, critical commentary on media coverage, completion and review of a project simulation or game, creation of project artefacts (e.g., charter, plans, reviews), design and delivery of teaching materials, development of a learning journal or blog. Although, depending on the specific assignment, the final product may not be a written work, in terms of work load, it would be roughly equivalent to up to 2,000 written words.
• A group coursework project, worth 40% of final mark. The structure and topic will vary year to year, and may include (but is not limited to) one or more of the following: research and analysis of project cases, critical commentary on media coverage, completion and review of a project simulation or game, creation of project artefacts (e.g., charter, plans, reviews), design and delivery of teaching materials or some other product or service. Although, depending on the specific assignment, the final product may not be a written work, in terms of work load, it would be roughly equivalent to 2,000 written words.

Individual and group coursework will be designed to complement and reinforce each other, rather than redundantly duplicate learnings. Each assessment covers all the intended learning outcomes”

When assessment does not go to plan

Re-assessment of units within the final year of undergraduate modular programmes is not permitted (regulation 30.18)

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. MGRC30009).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.