Course Project Management: A Practitioner’s Approach to the Managerial Process

The course Project Management: A Practitioner’s Approach to the Managerial Process is being offered by the Graduate School of Natural Sciences/GSNS and Graduate School of Technical Sciences/GSTS, Aarhus University, fall 2025.

Name of course: Project Management: A Practitioner’s Approach to the Managerial Process

ECTS credits: 5.0 ECTS

Course parameters: No. of contact hours/hours in total incl. preparation, assignment(s) or the like: First module three days and second module two days. Course participants will also be doing individual and group assignment between the course days and the two modules. The workload corresponds to approx. 150 hours.

Capacity limits: Min. 12 and max. 24 participants

Objectives of the course:
The aim of this course is to take a practitioners approach to project management focusing on both technical and sociocultural skills.

The course is not targeted at planning PhD students’ PhD project or research projects as such. The course is a general project management course.

Learning outcomes and competences:
At the end of the course, the student should be able to:

• Describe, analyze and apply technical and sociocultural project management methods, models and tools related to the managerial process of a project
• List, select and apply relevant methods, models, and tools to manage the lifecycle of an project
• Manage and execute low to medium complex projects

Compulsory programme:

• Five course days with active participation. Participants who are absent more than one day will not be able to pass the course unless special arrangement has been agreed with the course lecturers
• Individual/group assignment, which is part of the assessment. Each student will be asked to select a “real life” project in an organization, which should be examined in an empirical study. The project can be any type in private or public organizations as well as research projects. The assignment can be fulfilled either individually or in groups of maximum three students, however the exam report is prepared individually

Course contents:

Technical skills:
Scope, WBS, schedules, resource allocation, budgets, organization, resources and risks

Sociocultural skills:
Leadership, problem solving, teamwork, negotiation, politics and customer expectations

Project efficiency skills (inspired by the Half Double Methodology):
Ensuring impact, flow and leadership

Prerequisites:
It is recommended, but not a prerequisite, that the student has a basic knowledge about projects either obtained from work in organizations, being part of research project(s) or others.

Name of lecturer:

• Course Coordinator & lecturer: Per Svejvig, Associate Professor, PhD, Department of Management, Aarhus University
• External lecturer: Carsten Nielsen, Independent Mgmt. Consultant.
• External lecturer: Christina Foldager, Adaptare.dk

Type of course/teaching methods:
Lectures, exercises, group work, discussions, individual/group assignment analyzing a specific project in an organization, presentations and short paper

Literature:

• Gray, C. F., & Larson, E. W. (2018). Project management: the managerial process (Seventh edition). New York: McGraw-Hill
• Half Double Compendium (2021)

Course homepage:
Sharepoint

Course assessment:
Short paper of 5-10 pages analyzing a specific project from the individual/group assignment. Evaluation is passed/not passed

Provider:
Department of Management - Business and Social Science, Graduate School of Natural Sciences and Graduate School of Technical Sciences, Aarhus University

Special comments on this course:
The teachers of this course have extensive project management experience from industry supporting the objective of teaching professional knowledge

Time:

Module 1:

• 29 September 2025 from 9-18
• 30 September 2025 from 9-18
• 1 October 2025 from 9-16

Module 2:

• 24 November 2025 from 9-18
• 25 November 2025 from 9-16

Venue:
Online

No show fee:
Course participants on our transferable skills courses, who do not show up at the course or cancel their course participation after the course cancellation deadline (without providing a doctor’s note), may have to pay a no-show fee, unless someone from the waiting list is able to take part in the course instead.

The no-show fee is DKK 1,200 (the price of one ECTS). The no-show fee has been introduced due to many late cancellations, thus preventing people from the waiting lists to have a seat at the courses.

Registration:

• Participation in the course is without cost for PhD students from Aarhus University

Due to an Agreement between Danish Universities coming into force as of 1 January 2011, participants from other universities than Aarhus University will have to pay DKK 1,200 per ECTS. In principle this also applies to external parties, but exemption can be granted under specific circumstances.

Please be aware that your registration for the course not necessarily equals your admission for the course. You will receive an e-mail after the registration deadline regarding whether you are admitted for the course or if you are registered on the waiting list. Please note that seats are allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.

Course dates:

• 29 September 2025 09:00 - 18:00
• 30 September 2025 09:00 - 18:00
• 01 October 2025 09:00 - 16:00
• 24 November 2025 09:00 - 18:00
• 25 November 2025 09:00 - 16:00