Project management | Antwerp Doctoral School

Description

It requires a lot of skills from a doctoral researcher to efficiently start and shape the doctoral project. A training course in project management will help doctoral students to get their project right from the start. This training is strongly recommended for PhD students in the initial phase of their program, but equally useful for PhD students in a later phase of their PhD.

In our training offer we have 2 courses on Project Management with more or less the same content. However, the courses are taught by a different trainer, and differ in time commitment. While there may be some differences in content, it is pointless to take both courses. So choose the course according to your needs and time commitment. Below you find the detailed information per course.

Project Management - 21h course

Content

Project management seems to be the ultimate way of making things happen. The first prerequisite of working in projects is to identify the structural elements needed to control the chaos and uncertainty that is inherent to projects. As such it includes working process control, decision making, time management and planning, and constructive cooperation.

90% of contemporary organizations (both private and public) evolve on the basis of working by projects. In this course we explain the principles and methods of working by projects, aiming even at life beyond a PhD. The lecturer will challenge you to translate the discussed knowledge and skill into tips & tricks in the daily life of your PhD.

Day 1: Understanding the structure and the approach of projects
Day 2: A more in-depth approach to planning and monitoring
Day 3: Organization and people management

At the end of each day, participants write down 5 lines of action in which they say what they want to introduce or change. Within 48 hours, the participants get their plan of action back by e-mail. Two months after the course has ended, the teacher sends to each participant his plan of action so that he can evaluate the realisations of his good intentions.

Practical Information:

Dates & location:

Course HC03 : 13, 20 and 27 February 2025

9h00 - 16h30

Campus Middelheim

Building A - Room A.301/A.302

Teacher:

Tom Jacobs

Language of the course:

English

Docop-points:

This course counts for 2,1 docop-points.

Registration:

Via Sisa Self Service. Log in with your student account. Registration is possible as from 8 January 2025 and after you've been (re-)enrolled as a PhD student for 2024-2025.

Project Management - 12h course

Content

This training consists of 4 half day sessions. These 4 half days are spread over several weeks (2 to 3 weeks between each session), so that the participants can apply the insights learned to their current project.Participants will also work on preparatory and intermediate assignments. The Teams platform will be used to encourage maximum exchange between sessions as well and to create a lasting learning buddy group.

1. Session 1: Projects: types & structure

1.1 What is a project?

1.2 Making sound agreements in a dynamic reality: Project Charter

2. Session 2: Project course

2.1 Towards a realistic Planning: Milestone Planning

2.2 Self-Management before Project Management

3. Session 3: Communication in Projects

3.1 Stakeholder Analysis and Communication Plan: who is involved?

3.2 Strengthen your influencing Skills

4. Session 4: Impact of Project work: how to gain visibility for your project

4.1 Developing Leadership Skills

4.2 Giving and getting Feedback

After completing this training, participants are able to be successful 'PhD Managers' who can and dare take ownership in the following areas:

Managing their project: efficient project planning, monitoring the research project, long-term planning ...
Manage their environment: identify "stakeholders" of the project and learn when what communication is needed, adapt the way of communicating and/or reporting on the project...
Managing themselves: setting priorities, having insight into own talents and pitfalls, being resilient in dealing with setbacks during the research project...