Project Management

The various components of project management incorporated into EWB projects offer a great opportunity for students’ to develop interpersonal and project management skills.  Project management is defined to include: scheduling activities appropriately, effectively utilizing human resources, creating an information organization strategy, time management, and the understanding of the differences in having an insider or outsider perspective.   Students completed tasks on a tight time schedule while working on-site in often unpredictable environments.  Project management also includes the process of appropriately managing time, money, resources, and people.  While immersed in a real world project, students exhibited growth in their ability to efficiently organize the resources of the team and to develop an information organization strategy.  Students began to recognize the difference between the insider and outsider perspective.  Gaining an insider perspective into the community is valuable for any project’s success as it enables the project to be driven from the beneficiaries perspective.  The dynamics of an EWB project offers insight into the valuable project management skills that can be acquired through this and other similar experiences.

Components of Project Management

  • Manage time appropriately
  • Develop an organization strategy
  • Utilize human resources effectively
  • Understand insider versus outsider perspective

Project Management Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

  1. Recall project management and leadership skills acquired in previous experiences.
  2. Recognize the importance of a well-organized and structured project with specific goals and leadership.
  3. Be a contributing team member by exhibiting traits of a project manager.
  4. Realize specific project management components that would benefit their specific project.
  5. Identify strengths and weaknesses of the current project management and be able to react appropriately.
  6. Evaluate the effectiveness of project management components in regards to short and long-term project goals.