Management of Innovation Projects, 7.5 credits

Main field of study with advanced study

Bachelor's degree in Building Technology, Energy Engineering, Mechanical Engineering or the equivalent of 180 Swedish credit points or 180 ECTS credits at an accredited university. Including courses of 7.5 credits Project Management. Applicants must have written and verbal command of the English language equivalent to English course 6 in Swedish Upper-Secondary School. Exemption of the requirement in Swedish is granted.

The course is included in Master’s programme (120 credits) in Energy Smart Innovation in the Built Environment. The course is given as a single subject course.

The aim of the course is for the student to develop knowledge about innovation from a project management perspective, more specifically new product development projects (NPD - projects), and projects for change in internal processes and projects multiprocessor environments.

The student develops its ability to plan and evaluate project opportunities characterized by high uncertainty with multiple stakeholders.

The student should acquire knowledge by NPD-projects, 1) to learn about new product development projects (NPD-projects), how to lead them and their typical life cycle, 2) an in-depth understanding of change projects in internal processes, and 3) management of multi-project environments as complex systems.

After successful completing of the course the student should:

Knowledge and understanding

• Describe the basic and traditional project management methodology and history.
• Describe change and reorganization projects.
• Describe multi-project environments as complex systems in project, program and portfolio level.

Skills and ability

• Demonstrate the ability to select and use basic project management tools and techniques for planning and control of projects and multi project environments
• Explain how to start and lead NPD project through its complete lifecycle

Judgement and approach

• Critically evaluate information and research in the field
• Reflect on the consequences of choices and approaches get on innovation projects
• Reflect on how the complexity affects the individual project, the project portfolio and the organization in its context

The course includes:

• Basic knowledge of project management, including the implementation process, organization, planning, tools and technologies, stakeholders and communication and risk management.
• NPD project management including history, agile and iterative methods and NPD's lifecycle
• Change projects with a focus on internal innovation, such as developing new processes and new business models

Instruction consists of lectures, workshops and seminars.

The course is assessed through individual written test (general project management knowledge) and group work in the form of literature review, simulation, research report and case studies.

If there are special reasons, the examiner may make exceptions from the specified examination format and allow a student to be examined in another way. Special reasons can e.g. be study support for students with disabilities.

Course evaluation is part of the course. This evaluation offers guidance in the future development and planning of the course. Course evaluation is documented and made available to the students.