A central part of the course is to develop a group project for five weeks. The task is to develop a project plan for a fictional project. Throughout this process, you learn to work with results based management (RBM) in a concrete context, and you will also gain experience of working in a group in a conscious way.

The purpose of the project work is to, on the one hand, develop skills in project management and, on the other, to gain experience and actively reflect on group dynamics and leadership.

The project work is divided into five workshops where each group step by step works out a project plan in a logically designed sequence. During the workshops, each group receives feedback on their work by both teachers and fellow students. After each workshop, the group submits a written task that forms the basis for the next workshop and also a draft of the final project plan.

In parallel with the project work, lectures are given on various elements in project management, which you can then apply and discuss in the project plan.

The group division is done during the course introduction.

The project call!

Call for proposals: Region Västra Götaland GS1122_2023-1.docx

The project that each group designs must respond to a call from the Västra Götaland region (VGR) through which they fund projects that contribute to increased employment, new working methods, local development or new solutions to social challenges in the region. The call for projects can be found in the link above.

Literature

During the course of the project work, you should read the literature that is linked to each lecture. Besides articles, you will continuously read the parts of Tonnquist (2021) book on project management that is linked to the various workshops' themes. Tonnquist's book is a great resource throughout the course and in the home exam and in the project plan you need to show that you have read the literature.

The five workshops

Each workshop, apart from workshop 1, follows the same structure:

Each group gives feedback to another group on their submitted draft from the previous workshop (available under “Discussions” on Canvas). Which group comments on is specified in the respective workshop instructions. The feedback will take about 30 minutes. For the rest of the time, each group continues to work on their project plan according to given instructions.

The final project plan

The final project plan must comprise 10–20 pages and have the following content and structure:

Executive summary (max 500 words)
Background and problem formulation (incl. problem tree)
Project goals (incl. Logframe)
Stakeholders and participation (incl. stakeholder analysis)
Strategy analysis (incl. SWOT analysis)
Phase and schedule (incl. GANTT chart)
Resource plan (incl. budget)

The project plan must be submitted no later than 8 May Submission: Project plans on Canvas and will be presented orally on 11 May, Mandatory seminar and presentation of the project.

The oral presentation is a mandatory part of the project work. The presentation seminar also includes commenting on another group's project plan and presentation. In case of absence, there is a supplementary task: Comment on two other groups' project plans with 500 words each. The information is submitted on the page for supplementary information.

Assessment

The group work is assessed with the grades Fail or Pass.

The group is graded jointly based on the final project plan and the oral presentation according to the following criteria:

Logical structure of the project
Understanding of project management tools
Evidence-based argumentation
Presentation (i.e. how convincing is the text/presentation for the purpose of obtaining project funding)

Examples: projects from previous years

Here are some example projects from previous years (ONLY IN SWEDISH). Please note that the course has partly changed over the years, and the call for proposals is not the same - different requirements are therefore placed on the content of the project plan this year. Even so, it can be helpful to see how previous projects were designed. These examples have been chosen randomly and thus are not necessarily "perfect" project plans.

Grupp 3 Majblomman projektplan.pdf
Grupp 9 Projektplan.pdf
Projekt DeMaNo_Projektplan.pdf
Projektgrupp 10.pdf
Projektplan A.pdf
STUDY ZONE projektansökan.pdf