20507 - PROJECT AND TEAM MANAGEMENT

What do art exhibitions, festival, events and movies have in common? They are projects, that implies that creative and cultural organizations are increasingly becoming project-based organizations. The success of these project is a matter of both technical and organisational issues, hard and soft skills. In fact, project managers are in charge of developing a project plan, understanding the requirements, listing activities and scheduling them. They are also in charge of managing risks and facing the unexpected. Moreover, project managers have to deal with interdependent actors, facing the issues of building the team, fostering creative and problem-solving oriented teamwork. This course allows students acquiring those project management skills which are critical on creative and cultural projects.

• Project definition and project types.
• Project critical success factors in cultural and creative industries.
• Stakeholder analysis.
• The project plan.
• Scope management.
• Time management. 
• Risk management. 
• The project team: roles and responsibilities.
• Creativity in project teams. 
• Problem solving and decision making in project teams. 

• Develop an understanding the project management process, acquiring the main logics and tools.
• Know the principal project management techniques, applied to cultural and creative industries projects. 
• Discuss the challenges of building a project team and managing its dynamics. 

• Use project management techniques and tools (e.g. WBS, RACI Matrix, Gantt Chart) to plan and execute a project. 
• Manage project team dynamics and make creative and problem solving oriented decisions in teams.  

• Face-to-face lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Exercises (exercises, database, software etc.)
• Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
• Group assignments
• Interactive class activities (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)

• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance): we discuss project challenges with a creative organization doing large scale events at an international level. 
• Exercises (Exercises, database, software etc.): we do quick exercises to practice PM tools. 
• Case studies/Incidents (traditional, online): we discuss cases from cultural and creative projects. 
• Group assignments: we have 3 group assignments. Two of them are "rolling" and they allow for immediately applying what done in class at the end of each class. One is a final assignment on a real challenge posed by a creative organization. This assignment is presented at the end of the course. 
• Interactive class activities (Role playing, Business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls): we do quick role plays to put ourselves in the shoes of a real project manager. 

• 40% of the grade: Written exam (multiple choices and open questions) on all the course materials.
• 40% of the grade: two brief group assignments (estimated effort: 3 to 4 hours) to immediately apply what you learn in class. 
• 20% of the grade: one in-class group project to plan a real project for a real creative organization.

100% Written exam on the course’s readings. All the exams are based on multiple choice questions (no penalties for mistakes).

Readings listed in the syllabus for attending students and available in Course Reserves or online.

Readings listed in the syllabus for attending students. In addition:

• Project Management Toolkit for Arts and Culture Projects, ARTerial Network, 2011 http://www.arterialnetwork.org/ckeditor_assets/attachments/31/project_management_toolkit_eng.pdf
• Managing Art Projects with Societal Impact, 2016 (Chapters 6, 7, 8) https://issuu.com/mapsiproject/docs/mapsi_study_book