Towards project management 4.0 - general project management methodology

Target group

Present and future project workers in any project role or type of project wanting to build capability for project-oriented work by consolidating, upgrading and expanding their knowledge and skills in combination with supporting behaviour. This course is equally adapted to private as well as public sector.

Participants in the course will be a mixture of professionals and students. To ensure exclusivity for you as employee and your employer, with support before, during and after the course, the number of professional participants is limited to 10.

Co-creating competence development

The course itself run during 10 weeks but in fact the most important elements for a successful use of the training is the preparation prior to course start combined with the follow-up afterwards.

As shown in the picture above (you can download the picture for best performance) the first important milestone. This is an occasion where a representative of the organisation (e.g. managers of participant/ HR responsible etc.) takes part in a preparation event together with their participants and course teachers to set objectives for the training and discuss how the organisation plans to make use of the newly acquired competencies afterwards.

• Day will be provided for a digital meeting for managers of participant/ HR responsible about the course and co-creating competence development

As organisational impact is a main objective the participants are also offered three post-training coaching sessions focusing on how to support the practical implementation of the acquired competencies in the home organisation. Finally, one year after completed training a post training evaluation of benefits is offered using infographics to capture learning in a way that is easy to illustrate and share.

Why a tailormade project management training matters?

Any organisation investing in training would be looking for organisational impact and thus be interested in a training tailormade for their own needs. This presupposes that they are clear about what their own needs are in a world with an accelerating speed of change. Therefore, we have designed a course aiming for a black belt in as many project management disciplines as possible, where participants are also exchanging experiences between different industries to ensure that they have as many toolboxes and examples as possible to draw from, before they bring new input to their home organisation. Ideally the home organisation is ready and eager to welcome the training participant back as a potential change agent that can bring a fresh perspective on current practices and hopefully could be given space to suggest and try out something new and different.

The aim of the course

Karlstad Business School offers Project management 4.0 as a tailormade entry towards the future way of managing projects.

You get access to international guest lecturers, which consists of a mix of academics and professionals with in-depth knowledge of project management as well as the opportunity to tailor the education based on your and your employer's needs.

Project management 4.0 is implemented remotely via Zoom and uses the collaboration platforms Padlet and Canvas. Lectures takes place in the evening enabling e.g, compatibility with a full-time job. As a participant, you are expected to be able to participate in scheduled group meetings in the evenings and / or during weekends.

- This course gives you everything you need to know about the latest trends in project management, says Erik Månsson, course leader. The strength of the course structure is that it enables you as a participant to complete the education regardless of where you are in the world, and at the same time getting access to the qualified knowledge we offer.

The aim of the course is to provide both a theoretical as well as a practical foundation for managing any type of project such as traditional sequential (waterfall), agile or hybrid projects. The uniqueness of the course is the link to the evolution of project managing by introducing participants to benefits and challenges of each level of project management from 1.0 (top down hierarchical) towards 4.0 (ecosystem) in the making. This holistic view on project management enables participants to understand what the optimal response to any project context is.

The course itself is run as an example of project management 4.0 including a pre-project phase in Q1 2023 where the individual course objectives are discussed in dialogue between the participant, his/her organisation and the lecturer. During the course itself (project phase) participants form virtual project teams that will deliver a number of projects in a role play with a project owner based on cases where actual and virtual reality merge. Finally, all stakeholders involved will be engaged in a post project evaluation phase to ensure that lessons learned are used for continuous improvement loops.

• Link to Padlet presentation

Course content

The course includes virtual meetings, coaching and follow-up discussion of individual projects from the perspective of the project manager. There is a focus on projects in different professional contexts. Special emphasis is placed on project delimitation and the planning, organisation, and completion of individual projects, as well as the interaction between the project managers and other managers in the organisation where the project is carried out. 

The coursework is characterised to a great extent by participants being responsible for working actively in groups with authentic cases.

Upon completion of the course, students should be able to

• describe projects as goal-oriented work,
• describe, identify, and use relevant tools and methods to organise, plan, and manage individual projects, taking into account the specificity of each project,
• understand the evolution of project management from 1.0 (hierarchical) towards 4.0 (eco system) to be able to determine pros and cons for each level, and map it to own organisation and context.

Module 1: General project management

Introduction lecture by teachers Erik Månsson and John Johansson together with guest lecturer Bo Tonnquist who introduces his book Project Management followed by a workshop.

Module 2: Agile project management

Guest lecture by Dr. Tomas Gustavsson who introduces his book Agile Project Management followed by a workshop

Module 3: Project Governance

Guest lecture by Rolf Berndtson who introduces his book “Invest in Projects” followed by a workshop on the role of the project steering group

Module 4: Introduction of project case study 1

The course teachers Erik Månsson and John Johansson introduces the first case study on which participants will work and deliver a project plan as part of an assigned project team

Module 5: Project objectives and stakeholder management

Guest lecture and workshop with Karin Appelgren who is also offering Q&A on the topics

Module 6: Risk, resources, requirements and time

Guest lecture and workshop with Karin Appelgren who is also offering Q&A on the topics

Module 7: Introduction of project case 2 & 3

The course teachers Erik Månsson and John Johansson introduces project case 2 and 3 on which participants will work and deliver project plans as part of an assigned project team

Module 8: Group seminar on case 2 and 3 (mandatory)

Participants will present their project plans for case 2 and 3 as part of their assigned project team

Module 9: Final group seminar (manadatory)

Literature

• Gustavsson, Tomas. Agile Project Management. Sanoma Utbildning
• Tonnquist, B. Project Management. Sanoma
• Berndtson, R. Invest in Projects

Examination

The course is at undergraduate level and you can choose to accomplish the exam for 7,5 ECTS.

Assessment is based on individual written on-line exams, written hand-in group assignments, and active participation in group exercises and seminars.

One of the grades Distinction (VG), Pass (G), or Fail (U) is awarded in the examination of the course.

Digital meetings

• Lectures & workshops will take place in the evening (CET 18:00-20:00) once a week and will introduce the participants to the three authors of course literature (week 1-3) as well as introducing senior project managers and international professors to share practical project experience.
• All meetings and workshops will be digital.
• Material and lectures will be in English.

Lecturer

From Project Management at Karlstad Business School (part of Karlstad University)

• Erik Månsson has a background from banking and financial industry in Sweden. Since 1998 Erik is based in Frankfurt am Main where he was involved in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) project in different roles for 10 years. Since 2002 he has been an assessor for international project excellence on behalf of the International Project Management Association (IPMA). In 2018 he started to focus on his passion for teaching by lecturing on Organisational Excellence and Maturity models at SKEMA Business School in Paris. Since January 2020 he is a lecturer for project management and leadership at Karlstad Business School specialised on distance teaching.

• John Johansson has a background in IT where he has started and lead companies. He has a rich and diverse experience of combining management, leadership and technology in different IT-projects and roles. Since 2020 he is a full-time lecturer for project management and leadership at Karlstad Business School. John has written books about Leadership and recrutitment.

Guest lecturers

As we aim to give our participants black belt in several PM disciplines we have associated a number of high-profile guest lecturers with not only a lot of experience but above all chosen as they are leaders in their profession who actively contribute to the evolution of project management. The course book on Agile Project Management by Tomas Gustavsson was awarded as the best project management book in Sweden 2020, and we are pleased to give our participants direct access to his knowledge in this field. We are also very pleased to co-operate with Bo Tonnquist who is one of the most renowned authors and lecturers in project management in Sweden and internationally. Naturally we also emphasise practical experience and are particularly happy to have Karin Appelgren from the Swedish Traffic Agency as a guest lecturer. She was awarded as the first and only Swede so far awarded with an IPMA global award when she became finalist and won a bronze medal in 2020 in the category agile leader of the year.

• Bo Tonnqvist, author and lecturer on business development and project management both in Sweden and internationally (Edinburgh Business School).

• Tomas Gustavsson, researcher and lecture in project management at Karlstad University with a PhD on agile methods and author of Agile Project Management. 

• Rolf Berndtson, author on project governance with a long experience of board functions, management consulting and project management.

• Karin Appelgren, senior project manager at Trafikverket (Swedish Transport Agency) with IPMA B-certification as project manager as well as agile leadership. In 2020 Karin, as the first finalist ever from Sweden for IPMA global awards, was awarded a bronze medal in the category “Agile Leader of The Year” 

• Brane Semolic, PhD in Business Informatics at Maribor University in Slovenia and part-time professor in project management at the Crainfield College in South Africa.

• Leif Henriksen, retired professor in engineering, innovation and project management at University of Sothern Denmark in Odense who continues to develop new knowledge with local and global partner.

Cost

The course fee is 19 700 SEK (1. 950 €) excl. VAT per person (2023). Compulsory literature are not included in the fee.

VAT: Swedish VAT, 25%, will be charged on the course fee for all foreign or Swedish participants except for Swedish governmental organisations.

Participants in the course will be a mixture of professionals and students. To ensure exclusivity for you as employee and your employer, with support before, during and after the course, the number of professional participants is limited to 10.

Terms of registration 

Commissioned education is conducted in accordance with its regulations and turn to employees in the public sector, authorities and companies. To register for a commissioned education you have to be employed at a company or organization (not sole proprietorship). You can not participate as a private person. When you register your employer has to approve to your participation and will agree to receive an invoice for the costs of the education. The registration is binding and can not be cancelled.  If the number of participants becomes too low we might have to cancel the education. In that case we let you know as soon as possible. 

Future courses

The course Towards PM 4.0 is currently a stand-alone module prototyping a building block towards a future master’s degree in project management under construction. The exact content of such a degree is still open enabling a co-creation process with a number of stakeholders to ensure relevance in a fast-changing world. A second pilot project module was offered in autumn 2021 with focus on project leadership. Any of these modules may also be part of an Executive MBA that Karlstad University is developing in parallel for launch in the medium-term.