OVERVIEW

This course provides fundamental Project Management skills that are essential not only for professional growth and advancement into roles of greater responsibility, but also for effectively performing any role in IT project development, by learning to:

• Understand the context by aligning software development with business objectives and stakeholder expectations.
• Plan and estimate, by learning to decompose work, and realistically estimate time and costs.
• Proactively identify and mitigate technical and project risks.
• Communicate effectively about progress and critical issues, speaking the same language as the team and stakeholders.

This course will introduce the terminology and main concepts of traditional (predictive) project management and their application to the development of agile systems, with a hands-on approach.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Learning the fundamental concepts, roles, and responsibilities of IT project management and develop skills for effective project management and leadership.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

Upon completion, students will be able to:

• Understand fundamental concepts, principles, and tools of both predictive and agile IT project management, including roles and responsibilities.
• Apply techniques for work breakdown, estimation, risk management, and monitoring in both predictive and agile contexts using specific tools.
• Analyze the differences between predictive and agile approaches, and evaluate project progress and methodology suitability.
• Communicate effectively about project status and collaborate constructively within teams.

PREREQUISITES

A certain familiarity with IT development is useful for understanding the examples and grasping the problems addressed by project management techniques.

TEACHING METHODS

The course will utilize a combination of:

• Lectures: for the presentation of theoretical topics and the proposal of applied exercises to reinforce theoretical learning.
• Practical and Laboratory Activities: for each topic, students will apply what they have learned to a reference project throughout the course, collectively discussing the choices made.

Attendance is strongly recommended.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The course begins with a section dedicated to predictive project management, or classical project management, which will cover the following topics:

• Fundamentals of Project Management for IT:
  • Why project management is fundamental for all roles involved in development.
  • Historical overview of project management evolution in IT.
  • Main areas of Project Management: what (scope), how (methodology), with whom (stakeholders, team), when (time/schedule), and at what cost (budget).
• Fundamental Tools for Project Structuring:
  • How to define an IT project scenario.
  • Project decomposition to reveal its structure: WBS (Work Breakdown Structure), PBS (Product Breakdown Structure), OBS (Organizational Breakdown Structure), ABS (Activity Breakdown Structure).
  • WP (Work Package) and basic activity management.
• Project Initiation: Estimation and Preliminary Evaluation for IT Projects:
  • Cost estimation.
  • IT Risk Analysis and Management.
  • Concepts of Economic Valuation: ROI (Return on Investment), NPV (Net Present Value), and Simplified Economic Valuation (EVA).
• Time and Resource Planning for a Project:
  • GANTT charts.
  • PERT method.
  • Critical Path Method (CPM).
  • Resource planning.
• Project Performance Monitoring and Control:
  • Progress analysis.
  • Time and cost control.
  • Earned Value Method (EVM).
  • Deviation management.
• Communication, Reporting, and Project Closure:
  • Project Management Plan (PMP).
  • Kick-off Meeting (KoM).
  • Reporting.
  • Stakeholder management.
  • Project closure.
• Predictive Project Management Lab: From Concept to Closure:
  • A group-based laboratory activity, distributed throughout the semester. Students will apply the concepts described in the preceding points to a single example project that will evolve from initial planning to final reporting.
• Real-life Experience: Interventions from industry professionals.

Once students have gained familiarity with the concepts and techniques of classical project management, and after recalling the basic values and principles of agile paradigms, the course will address how classical tools can be adapted to manage projects using agile methodologies.

Specifically, the following topics will be covered:

• Adapting Work Structure (WBS) to the Agile Context:
  • From Macro to Micro.
  • Product/Sprint Backlog.
  • Tasks and Activities.
• Agile Estimation and Planning:
  • Iterative planning.
  • Agile estimation techniques.
• Risk and Quality Management in Agile:
  • Risk management techniques and responsible roles.
  • Tools for quality in agile processes.
• Agile Monitoring and Control:
  • Dashboards and Indicators.
  • Agile Meetings as control tools.
  • EVM vs. Agile Metrics.
• Leadership and Communication in the Agile Context:
  • Roles and responsibilities in agile processes.
  • Servant leadership.
  • Effective communication techniques.
  • Agile team management.
• Integration and Methodology Selection:
  • Hybrid Agile/Predictive models.
  • How to choose the optimal methodology for a particular IT project.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bibliography and online resources will be indicated and discussed during lectures and made available on the course's AulaWeb page together with the lesson slides that students can use as a summary to refine their notes.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

LESSONS

LESSONS START

According to the calendar approved by the Degree Program Board: https://corsi.unige.it/en/corsi/11964/studenti-orario

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Ongoing Activities: Throughout the semester, short quizzes will be held at the conclusion of individual topics, and instructors will propose exercises whose autonomously produced solutions will then be discussed collectively during lessons.

Final Examination Components: At the end of the lessons, to take the exam, each student must:

• Pass a written exam covering the entire program. This test can be substituted by satisfactory results in ongoing activities (quizzes and exercises).
• Develop a project following the example exercises proposed during the year on a personalized topic agreed upon with the instructors.
• Take an oral examination that will cover all course topics and include a discussion of the project. Admission to the oral exam will be conditional upon project submission and passing the written exam (or achieving satisfactory results in ongoing activities).

Guidelines for students with certified Specific Learning Disorders, disabilities, or other special educational needs are available at https://corsi.unige.it/en/corsi/11964/studenti-disabilita-dsa

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Ongoing activities will help students gain awareness of their preparation and pace themselves.

• Quizzes: Will assess the level of acquired knowledge.
• Exercises: Will evaluate the level of competence and application skills.
• Class Discussion of Exercises: Will highlight the degree of technical understanding and communication skills.

The written exam (when mandatory) will verify the level of knowledge and application skills through small exercises.

The project discussion will demonstrate how well students have learned to autonomously complete project management activities in a comprehensive example.

Questions on general topics will evaluate students' theoretical knowledge and critical analysis skills.

FURTHER INFORMATION

For further information, please refer to the course’s AulaWeb module or contact the instructor.