Postgraduate Course: Management of the Project Lifecycle (IDCORE) (PGEE11104)

Course Outline
School	School of Engineering	College	College of Science and Engineering
Credit level (Normal year taken)	SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate)
Course type	Placement	Availability	Not available to visiting students
SCQF Credits	10	ECTS Credits	5
Summary	The aim of this course would be to give the students a grounding in the techniques that are commonly used to manage large scale projects such as would be involved in the development of offshore renewable energy installations and their operation. Key aspects in setting up new projects will be studied by looking at topics such as Team Formation and a comprehensive look at Contract Management and Finance. Subsequently techniques for managing project development will be studied in context by considering Health and Safety issues and the requirements of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations. In addition project management and control methods will look at the various tools that can be used to manage work in the context of deadlines, budget and financial control and the scheduling of resources. General management techniques and leadership will complement the analysis of this topic.
Course description	1. Introduction and project definition; definition of project management; project objectives & compromises. 2. Project Life Cycle: what the various stages of an engineering project are, from conception to commissioning to decommissioning. 3. Parties to a project: who the main players in an engineering project are and what are their roles. 4. Project planning. Networks, Gantt charts & network techniques. 5. The Critical Path Method as a way of analysing precedence networks and determining the critical path and activity floats. 6. The planning & estimating role and introduction to the estimating process 7. Financial resources. The role of cash flow and the concepts of liability, earning, profit, surplus and expenditure. 8. Elements of cost and cost data; the all-in rate; estimating methods: global, factorial and labour-hours methods. 9. Further estimating methods: unit-rate estimating and operational estimating. 10. Further issues in estimating: conversion to tender bid; learning & forgetting; estimating accuracy; budgeting. 11. Introduction to contract management and contract law. 12. Types and classifications of engineering contracts. Contracts can be classified in three ways and this lecture will look at the differences between these classifications and why they are used. 13. Contract planning & contractor selection. The stages in the lead up to appointing an appropriate contractor for the project and how this is undertaken. 14. Contract award and conditions of contract. The procedures for awarding an engineering contract and how such contracts are administered through ¿Conditions of Contract. 15. Teams & Leadership: Subject to time, this lecture will cover the elements that make up a successful team in Engineering Project. Meredith Belbin¿s Team Roles theory will also be introduced.

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites		Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations		Other requirements	None
Additional Costs	None

Course Delivery Information

Academic year 2015/16, Not available to visiting students (SS1)		Quota: None
Course Start	Full Year
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Please contact the School directly for a breakdown of Learning and Teaching Activities
Assessment (Further Info)	Please contact the School directly for a breakdown of Assessment Methods
Additional Information (Assessment)	100% Preparation of a Project Plan for an example provided project
Feedback	Not entered
No Exam Information

Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course the student should be able to; 1. demonstrate an understanding of the stages of a project and the principal players within and without a project, 2. analyse a project and produce a plan and a schedule of resource requirements, as well as perform limited optimisation studies, 3. appreciate the fundamentals of hazards and risks in the development of projects and how these may be managed, 4. understand how the various parties involved in an engineering project use estimating and budgeting techniques as financial control tools, and 5. understand the contractual aspects between the various parties involved in an engineering project.