Course description

Title of the Teaching Unit

Project Management in Southern Countries

Code of the Teaching Unit

22MPD10

Academic year

2024 - 2025

Cycle

Number of credits

Number of hours

Quarter

Weighting

Site

Anjou

Teaching language

French

Teacher in charge

DAL FIOR Catherine

Objectives and contribution to the program

At the end of this course, the student should be able to :
- KNOW
o Identify and describe the basic principles of project management
o Elements of the project management approach
o Definition of objectives and strategies
o Elements of the logical framework
o Planning and Gantt chart
o Describe the management of the development project cycle
o Recognise the different methodological steps necessary for managing a project
o Identify and describe different development issues worked on in the North and the South
- KNOW-HOW
o Designing and organising a project using project management tools and methods (tree techniques, logical framework and others)
o Make formal use of management, economics, law, culture and methodology courses by applying them to the course project.
o Structure the course project using the appropriate project management tools: define the aims, the results to be achieved, the indicators, the scope, the limits, the risks, the interdependencies, the logistics, ... and build the link with the dissertation.
o Identifying the conditions for success of management projects in the South, formulating rules and a plan for implementation, reacting autonomously and correcting the plan according to the chosen project
o Adapt the methodology to the context of the chosen project and to the different issues seen during the experts' interventions.
- KNOW-HOW
o Being able to think about the project with respect for the other person's points of reference and ways of thinking and not only with one's own points of reference.
o Have a critical and open mind
o Anticipate and identify the risks of misunderstandings due to cultural differences.
o Constantly take a step back from the project.
o Sharing experiences and promoting exchanges with students facing the same challenges
o To be a citizen of the world, an actor of positive change

The course prepares the student to be
- LG2: Operational that is able to
a. Analyze situations in order to identify problems
b. Define strategies and try to implement them
c. Design and implement management solutions in his/her areas of specialization
d. Work in team and autonomously

- LG3: Responsible for one's future and that of society
a. Be able to identify ethical and environmental issues and potential consequences of decisions made
b. Be able to propose solutions that are informed by ethical analysis of situations and their impacts on individuals and organizations

LG 4: Open to the world
a. Think globally
b. Work in an international and multicultural environment

LG5- Aware of complexity and keeping a critical mind - Be able to keep a critical distance, question things and carry out some research while maintaining a critical approach to various sources of information and confronting various viewpoints

- LG6: Able to communicate orally and in writing in several languages.
a. Be able to deliver a professional oral presentation with appropriate technology
b. Be able to create clear and well-structured documents on complex subjects

Prerequisites and corequisites

This course is based on methodology and management (concepts, management of an organisation, time and quality management).
Critical thinking, analysis and synthesis are also necessary.

Content

1. Project management in general and in the South in particular
2. Enterprise Project Management "Business North/South oriented".
a. Basic elements of the PMI and PRINCE2 methods - Product Breakdown Structure technique
b. Other methods (agile, lean, etc.)
3. Development Project Management "focused on International Cooperation".
a. Identification - tree technique and other proposals
b. Formulation - logical framework technique and other proposals (ToC)
c. Planning
d. Monitoring and evaluation
e. Budgeting and fundraising
f. Case studies and interventions
4. Analysis of projects in different themes worked on in the South
a. Case studies
b. Interventions

Teaching methods

The course uses a "professionalising" type of method, i.e. one that leads the student to be directly operational once in the world of work, whether in a company or in development cooperation. The content is based on an active teaching pedagogy such as the "project approach".
- Presential: part of the course will be given in a participative "ex-cathedra" form: practical situations, presentations based on completed or ongoing projects, etc. Another part will be given in the form of seminars consisting of external guest speakers, feedback on the progress of each collective project or individual follow-up, etc.
- Non-attendance: this part will mainly consist of the elaboration of a portfolio/folder linked to the individual or group project (following the project management techniques) but also of readings on the themes of the course.

This course calls for the active participation of students to put the method into practice and, at the same time, requires a dynamic and support for each project.

In this course, you will be asked to use AI transparently, responsibly and critically. Be sure to follow the instructions given for each production activity, as uses may vary.

Assessment method

- Formative evaluation
In order to ensure that the learning outcomes, but above all, the transfer of learning from the course to the student, the formative evaluation will prepare the student for the criteria of the scertificative evaluation. It will take place during the course sessions (practical exercises), seminars and interviews on the progress of group or individual work (feedback).
In concrete terms, the student will be asked to put together a portfolio which he or she can use to carry out the certificative evaluation at the end of the course (the final project file). The different elements of the portfolio will be explained during the course sessions so as to enable the student to apply the theory seen in the course to practice.
- SCertificative assessment
Students, in groups, will choose a single work theme for the course Globalisation & Development (Glo&Dev) and the North-South Project Management course (GPNS). This will be individual work if the student does not have both courses in their programme. Students will deliver outputs which will be analysed by the lecturer of the course to which the deliverable relates. The GPNS course will enable students to work upstream and downstream of the theme, i.e. to understand the needs and to better apprehend the relevance of the solution studied by placing it in its context. The Glo&Dev course will allow students to analyse in depth an existing solution to the problems/needs identified in the GPNS course, to make a critical analysis of it, allowing them to bring improvement to this solution or even to imagine a new one to increase the positive impact on the identified issue.
Students will prepare, in groups (two or three), a written work and an oral presentation.
Students who need to work alone on a topic will discuss it with the teachers.

The assessment of each student will be continuous, based on the work done during the term in the group :
- Portfolio building and course participation and feedback: 30%.
- The final project file: 40%.
- Oral presentation: 40%.

The project folder is used to confirm the students' skills at the different stages of project management, mainly in a context of international cooperation.

References

See pedagogical document