Essential Skills for Data-driven Project Management: A classroom teaching experiment

Authors

  • Tom Servranckx Belgium
  • Mario Vanhoucke http://www.ucl.ac.uk/msi/profile/mario-vanhoucke Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University; Belgium Technology and Operations Management Area, Vlerick Business School, Ghent, Belgium; University College London, United Kingdom Belgium

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.19255/JMPM02609

Keywords:

Data-driven project management, Dynamic scheduling, Case studies, Classroom experiments, Management skills

Abstract

We investigate the performance of students in a Data-driven Project Management course module that consists of several realistic case studies derived from the book “The data-driven project manager: A statistical battle against project obstacles” (Vanhoucke 2018). Based on case study evaluations, we monitor the students’ level for various technical and non-technical skills. We identify and classify seven project management skills in management literature and, subsequently, we statistically investigate the link between these skills and the student performance during the course module. Also, a model to incorporate these skills in the Dynamic Scheduling framework is proposed and validated using Structural Equation Modeling. The results indicate that planning is key for good risk analysis and project control, and show that both types of skills are important for successful project management.

Author Biographies

  • Tom Servranckx, Belgium

    Tom Servranckx obtained his PhD in 2020 for his research in the domain of project scheduling. In his dissertation, he introduced and investigated the RCPSP with alternative subgraphs (RCPSP-AS), proposed a solution approach for the RCPSP-AS and validated the approach on real-life cases. In addition, he also studied the integration of the static scheduling phase and the dynamic project control phase. More precisely, he investigated how back-up schedules can be used by project managers to deal with uncertainty during project execution.

  • Mario Vanhoucke, http://www.ucl.ac.uk/msi/profile/mario-vanhoucke Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University; Belgium Technology and Operations Management Area, Vlerick Business School, Ghent, Belgium; University College London, United Kingdom Belgium

    Prof. Dr. Mario Vanhoucke is professor at the Ghent University and head of the department of Information Science and Operations Management. He is also part-time professor at Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School (Belgium) and University College of London (UK). He teaches Project Management, Business Statistics and Applied Operations Research. Read more. Teaching Mario teaches “Project Management” in the MSc course module CEGEG041 at University College of London (UK) and Ghent University (Belgium). He also teaches “Decision Sciences” and “Business Statistics” at Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School (Belgium) and Beijing University (China), “Applied Operations Research” at Ghent University (Belgium), and Read more. Research Mario‘s research interests include project management, project risk management and project control (Earned Value Management) as well as health-care optimisation and machine scheduling. Here you can see some of his recent research projects. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/msi/profile/mario-vanhoucke/research Publications “New computational results for the discrete time/cost trade-off problem in project networks”, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 1998, 49 (11), 1153-1163 (with E. Demeulemeester, B. Foubert, W. Herroelen and M. Vanhoucke). “An exact procedure for the resource-constrained weighted earliness-tardiness project scheduling problem”, Annals of Operations Research, 2001, 102, 179-196 (with E. Demeulemeester and W. Herroelen). “On maximizing the net present value of a project under renewable resource constraints”, Management Science, 2001, 47, 1113-1121 (with E. Demeulemeester and W. Herroelen). "Scheduling projects with linearly time-dependent cash flows to maximize the net present value", International Journal of Production Research, 2001, 39, 3159-3181 (with E. Demeulemeester and W. Herroelen). “Discrete time/cost trade-offs in project scheduling with time-switch constraints”, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 2002, 53, 741-751 (with E. Demeulemeester and W. Herroelen). “A random network generator for activity-on-the-node networks”, Journal of Scheduling, 2003, 6, 13-34 (with E. Demeulemeester and W. Herroelen). “Progress payments in project scheduling problems”, European Journal of Operational Research, 2003, 148, 604-620 (with E. Demeulemeester and W. Herroelen). “New computational results for the discrete time/cost trade-off problem with time-switch constraints”, European Journal of Operational Research, 2005, 165, 359-374. “A bi-population based genetic algorithm for the RCPSP”, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2005, 3483, 378-387 (with D. Debels). “A hybrid scatter search/electromagnetism meta-heuristic for project scheduling”, European Journal of Operational Research, 2006, 169, 638-653 (with D. Debels, B. De Reyck, and R. Leus). “Work continuity constraints in project scheduling”, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 2006, 132, 14-25. “A simulation and evaluation of earned value metrics to forecast the project duration”, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 2007, 58, 1361–1374 (with S. Vandevoorde). “A decomposition-based genetic algorithm for the resource-constrained project scheduling problem”, Operations Research, 2007, 55, 457-469 (with D. Debels). “An electromagnetism meta-heuristic for the nurse scheduling problem”, Journal of Heuristics, 2007, 13, 359-385 (with B. Maenhout). “A simulation analysis of errors in the design of costing systems”, The Accounting Review, 2007, 82, 939-962 (with E. Labro). “The discrete time/cost trade-off problem: extensions and heuristic procedures”, Journal of Scheduling, 2007, 10, 311-326 (with D. Debels). “A comparison and hybridization of crossover operators for the nurse scheduling problem”, Annals of Operations Research, 2008, 159, 333 – 353 (with B. Maenhout). “An evaluation of the adequacy of project network generators with systematically sampled networks”, European Journal of Operational Research, 2008, 187, 511–524 (with J. Coelho, D. Debels, B. Maenhout and L. Tavares). “The impact of various activity assumptions on the lead-time and resource utilization of resource-constrained projects”, Computers and Industrial Engineering, 2008, 54, 140–154 (with D. Debels). “Setup times and fast tracking in resource-constrained project scheduling”, Computers and Industrial Engineering, 2008, 54, 1062-1070. “Diversity in resource consumption patterns and costing system robustness to errors”, Management Science, 2008, 54, 1715 – 1730 (with E. Labro). “On the characterisation and generation of nurse scheduling problem instances”, European Journal of Operational Research, 2009, 196, 457–467 (with B. Maenhout). “The impact of incorporating nurse-specific characteristics in a cyclical scheduling approach”, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 2009, 60, 1683-1698 (with B. Maenhout). “A finite capacity production scheduling procedure for a Belgian steel company”, International Journal of Production Research, 2009, 47, 561 – 584 (with D. Debels). “A scatter search heuristic for maximizing the net present value of a resource-constrained project with fixed activity cash flows”, International Journal of Production Research, 2010, 48, 1983-2001. “A genetic algorithm for the preemptive and non-preemptive multi-mode resource-constrained project scheduling problem”, European Journal of Operational Research, 2010, 201, 409-418 (with V. Van Peteghem). “Using activity sensitivity and network topology information to monitor project time performance”, Omega - International Journal of Management Science, 2010, 38, 359-370. “Introducing optimization techniques to students: An exam case distribution model”, INFORMS Transactions on Education, 2010, 206, 155-167. “A hybrid scatter search heuristic for personalized crew rostering in the airline industry”, European Journal of Operational Research, 2010, 206, 155-167 (with B. Maenhout). “Branching strategies in a branch-and-price approach for a multiple objective nurse scheduling problem”, Journal of Scheduling, 2010, 13, 77-93 (with B. Maenhout). “On the dynamic use of project performance and schedule risk information during project tracking”, Omega - International Journal of Management Science, 2011, 39, 416-426. “Using resource scarceness characteristics to solve the multi-mode resource-constrained project scheduling problem”, Journal of Heuristics, 2011, To appear (with V. Van Peteghem) “An evolutionary approach for the nurse rerostering problem”, Computers and Operations Research, 2011, 38, 1400-1411 (with B. Maenhout). “Multi-mode resource-constrained project scheduling using RCPSP and SAT solvers”, European Journal of Operational Research, 2011, to appear (with J. Coelho) “On maximizing the net present value of a project under renewable resource constraints”, Management Science. “A decomposition-based genetic algorithm for the resource-constrained project scheduling problem”, Operations Research. “On maximizing the net present value of a project under renewable resource constraints”, Management Science, 2001, 47, 1113-1121 (with E. Demeulemeester, E. and W. Herroelen). “A simulation analysis of errors in the design of costing systems”, The Accounting Review, 2007, 82, 939-962 (with E. Labro). “A decomposition-based genetic algorithm for the resource-constrained project scheduling problem”, Operations Research, 2007, 55, 457-469 (with D. Debels). “Diversity in resource consumption patterns and costing system robustness to errors”, Management Science, 2008, 54, 1715 – 1730 (with E. Labro).

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Published

2022-05-20

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 1 (2021): The Journal of Modern Project Management

Section

Articles-JMPM

License

Copyright (c) 2022 Tom Servranckx, Mario Vanhoucke

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Essential Skills for Data-driven Project Management: A classroom teaching experiment. (2022). The Journal of Modern Project Management, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.19255/JMPM02609

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