Developing project management skills

In this article, together with some lecturer colleagues, I present an approach to developing project management skills for business students which could be also used for those working in business organisations. Project management education often focuses on a number of techniques to ensure successful and linear project delivery. However, little is said about developing skills to manage in situations of 'chaos'. Our experience at the Business School at Hull University, UK shows that these situations are becoming common, as projects are continuously defined and implemented in very dynamic environments. In the article we consider the repertoire of students' 'soft' skills to aid in their project definition. We use Belbin's team roles classification that provides students with an inventory of 'what they are good at' when working with others. Groups are presented with a real situation and given a number of project definition techniques, including the systems mnemonic CATWOE and conceptual model. The dynamics of proposal preparation and presentation are such that students need to deal with some 'chaotic' situations which require them to employ skills for negotiation, conflict management and task completion. We suggest that the future of project management education should emphasise the cultivation of skills to deal with the reality of projects in organisations.