Strategic Project Management - MSc

University of Kent

This module will provide students with a good understanding of key concepts and theories in the field of Programme and Project Management. Students will learn about key practices and techniques and gain a good understanding of how they might be applied in real business contexts.

This module will utilise domestic and international companies to shed light on change management issues, and models of change and therefore allows students to gain understanding of leadership and change in organisations and subjects covered will typically include: Understanding change management; The role of change agents including management consultants; Examine the core issues involved in leading change; Organisations and key stakeholders to deliver change and organisational success; Contemporary issues in change management.

The module content includes business consultancy skills that are transferable into the business consulting profession, internal consultancy positions within organisations, and senior management roles.

This module aims to provide an advanced understanding of the role of strategic management in organisations, relating to the strategic analysis, decision-making and processes within and between organisations in different business contexts. Through studying this module students develop critical awareness of current developments and new insights in strategic management and performance measurement.

Agile project management is an iterative approach to delivering a project throughout its life cycle, providing innovative solutions in a sustainable manner. This module considers the theoretical perspectives and the application of appropriate principles and techniques with regard to Agile Project Management. The module will consider aspects such as prioritisation and time boxing; controlling an agile project; anticipating and managing risk and building in quality.

Benefits management defines benefits, implements the necessary change and ensures the benefits are realised. From an application perspective, this module combines a set of principles, processes and techniques for a student to master and execute when managing projects. This module proposes a definition of value that embraces both monetary and non-monetary benefits, and argues that the subjectivity of value increases the need for it to be actively managed. It provides a method, supported by techniques, for allocating scarce funds as effectively as possible. This module will cover real-life case studies on organisations adopted Benefits Management successfully and less successfully. This module will help candidate to take MoV foundation and Practitioner Exam. This module will cover hands on training on strategic benefits management dashboards for projects (e.g. Wovex and Amplify) and it will equip students with skills to design their own Benefits Management and Management of Value methodologies including their dashboards.

Project Management Office (PMO) is a group or department within the organisation whose job it is to define and maintain the standards for project management within that business. This module is aligned with P3O guidance and gives hands on training on The Portfolio, Programme, and Project Management Maturity Model (P3M3). An advanced Project Management Office may have wide-ranging responsibilities for the setting up and development of the project management function within the organisation and this module will delve into how processes, procedures and other mechanisms are developed, implemented, monitored and communicated to enable the operation of common standards of project management within all projects undertaken by the organisation. This module will help learners to develop their PMOs. Students will study different real life case studies on successful PMOs in different international contexts.

Project risk management is the process used by project managers to minimise any potential problems that may negatively impact a project's timetable. This module covers the area of risk management in the strategic, tactical, and operational project contexts. It aims to help learners developing a new project management methodology aligned with Management of Risk (MoR) framework. The module contains essential risk management theory and concepts as applicable to project environments including project risk planning, preparation and response and will combine the professional body of knowledge with the professional and academic case studies applied in the real context. The areas of risk identification, assessment, monitoring and control will also be reviewed. This module is aligned with Management of Risk (MoR) guidance.

Strategic Portfolio Management enables senior management to create, define and manage the portfolio of strategic options that best delivers the organisation's vision, balancing short and long term objectives, risks and cost. This module aims to support students with an overview of portfolio management, the principles on which it is based, complex and best-in-practice techniques used, and how to get started and sustain progress. This module addresses the key concepts of portfolio management, its benefits to organisations and how it fits in with the organisation strategy development and implementation. This module is aligned with the Management of Portfolio Professional Certificate and its ethical aspects and will apply a mix of academic and empirical literature with the professional body of knowledge. World class real life case studies will be discussed.

Employers are in search for individuals who possess logical thinking, analytical capability, leadership, communication and the ability to work under pressure. This module develops the necessary research knowledge and skills for students to be able to successfully complete a piece of research in industry or consultancy contexts or academia.