Better Project Management at ISS

Since 2009 Workz has collaborated with ISS on developing and running some of ISS’s internal project manager programs.

ISS wanted the programme to have a pragmatic focus and draw from a varied range of learning methods in order to accommodate the diverse group of participants from all areas of ISS. The programme had to meet the standards of the Academy profession programme in leadership and had to function as the elective course Project Management in Practice.

For ISS’s education department it was something completely new to offer an accredited course as part of the internal educational programme. Therefore it was important that the programme was adapted to the operations-oriented culture and the very diverse educational and professional backgrounds of the participants. Also, the programme had to support ISS’s existing strategic project governance initiative and the underlying principles and methods.

THE COMPOSITION OF THE PROGRAMME

We developed the programme in close collaboration with ISS education department, ISS Business Development and KEA Copenhagen School of Design and technology.

One of the challenges we faced was making the programme as practice-oriented as possible while encompassing an extensive obligatory curriculum.

A considerable part of the programme was built around Workz’ project management simulations and a range of practice-oriented exercises. In these the participants train the facilitation and management of the projects start-up while focusing on their own projects. – They manage the process with the other participants and create a foundation for continuing their own projects while continuously creating a clear objective and mandate for the projects.

The programme is designed with a clear link between theory and method, encompassing lectures, reflection and training. Our leadership simulations, Timekeepers, focusing on project planning and risk management, and Playmakers, focusing on project team management and stakeholders, function as a bridge-building tool linking the lessons to the participants’ practice as project managers.

In the start-up seminar the participants train linking the overall objective of the project to the development of a business case for the project. Furthermore they work with methodical goal analysis, work breakdown structures and the establishment of the overall flow and design of the project.

Workz have been capable to fully understand our business and tailor an educational programme

The participants’ reflections on their own role as project managers are structured through a personal learning log that all participants must work with throughout the programme. In the log the theory and the participants’ experiences from the exercises are linked with the actual management challenges that the participants face.

We have been extremely pleased to work with Workz on our project manager educational programme. Our primary criterion for success has been to create a positive and quantifiable change as regards the participants subsequent project management.

“Workz have more than lived up to our expectations by linking the reality of ISS to a relevant theoretical approach. Workz have been capable to fully understand our business and tailor an educational programme. Furthermore it has been a great success for us that the programme entails actual certification and the possibility of obtaining ECTS credits, that the programme is based on an involving and playful approach and that Workz have been very flexible continuously adapting the programme to our needs “ says Bo B. Klemmensen
, Head of PMO, Business Development