Learning project management skills in senior design courses

Abstract- US university engineering programs include a “senior design ” course in their curricula. These courses are a student’s last opportunity to use design skills learned in school. Student teams work to solve a problem while demonstrating their design and technical skills. A survey of one university department's program showed that few student groups complete the full functionality promised at the outset, and many groups did not even complete working systems, only working subsystems. If the students possessed project management skills, they could be more successful. Pedagogy of project management concepts is suggested, based on the Project Management Institute's "Project Management Body of Knowledge". An evaluation plan is also suggested for assessing the value of this new framework. Index Terms – Capstone, project management, scope, senio