Project, program and portfolio management skills are vital throughout the lifecycle of engineering systems. This course will introduce the students to the state-of-the-art in project, program and portfolio management throughout contracting, design, operation and divestment. The focus will be on complex socio-technical engineering systems with long life cycles, such as energy generation and distribution, transportation infrastructure, construction systems, aerospace and defense systems, maritime systems, IT systems or product/service systems. The objective of the course is to enable students to apply system-oriented, advanced project, program and portfolio management techniques in this highly interdisciplinary context and prepare them for future leadership roles in industry or government agencies. En studerende, der fuldt ud har opfyldt kursets mål, vil kunne:

• Explain and discuss the similarities and differences between the management of projects, programs and portfolios
• Critically assess the nature of projects, programs and portfolios based on four key perspectives (purpose, complexity, uncertainty and people)
• Identify and critical reflect upon key challenges and best practices in the project, program and portfolio management of an engineering system
• Apply system-oriented methods to identify root causes of the challenges
• Identify and prioritize best practices to address challenges and improve project, program and portfolio performance
• Develop implementation plans for project, program and portfolio management related changes
• Develop business cases and successfully argue for organizational change initiatives
• Find relevant and supplementary information from external sources necessary to solve the challenge and document best practices
• In writing promote, explain and argue for the understanding and analysis of a challenge in a wiki article and final report (business case)
• Orally present and argue for the analysis of the challenge of and proposal for a solution
• Give constructive feedback upon the work of others

The course will address four key erspectives framing challenges for project, program and portfolio management: 1. Purpose, focusing on creating the sustainable impact. 2. People, addressing the social and organizational intricacies caused by public opinion formation as well as inner- and intra-organizational factors. 3. Complexity, with a particular focus on the relationship of technical and organizational complexity. And 4. Uncertainty, with a focus on identifying and mitigating key risks and uncertainties throughout the long life cycles of engineering systems.

The course will also address to major operational interfaces of project and program management, first, to the interdisciplinary design processes (e.g. systems engineering) and secondly, to business strategy and public policy.

The course is built around three major activities: 1. Lectures and seminars, 2. Individual assignment resulting in a wiki entry on current challenges and/or best practices. Students will review their colleagues’ papers, and results will be presented. And 3. A group assignment in the form of a business case for organizational change is presented in class. Course literature will be communicated at course start 21. april, 2021