Project management

This learning block is focused on project management – the knowledge and tools needed to achieve specific goals within specific constraints. 

Project management is applied across many different fields and while there are some variations in the skills needed the basics of project management methods are the same – whether you are building a bridge or creating a language corpora. Best practices in this area have been collected for more than half a century and thus there is an abundance of learning materials available to help you up your project management skills. Therefore in this block, we provide a curated selection of the most useful and user-friendly online resources. In addition, we present a set of exercises in project management specifically designed for language and linguistics specialists. Finally, we provide a student project task to complete the learning experience.

The pedagogical approach behind this block is that students take an active approach in learning. We provide definitions of important concepts accompanied by examples and practical activities that will guide students towards their deeper understanding. 

The block’s units are conceived in a modular way that allows lecturers and learners to take (or adapt) them either in sequence or as self-standing contents, depending on their needs.

1. The nuts & bolts – the notion and characteristics of a project; general concepts of project management and professional standards; the profile of a project manager; main project phases (i.e. project management life cycle); project scheduling and implementation. (1.5 ECTS)
2. Getting organized – exercises in project management for language and linguistics specialists (1.5 ECTS)
3. Student project – getting it done: Managing translation projects (1 ECTS)

Overall, the materials and activities present in this block will allow students to:

• explain the general concepts of project management;
• identify the main characteristics of a project manager’s role and responsibilities;
• describe basic project management methodology and its phases, including the most commonly used tools (e.g. GANTT charts, PERT diagrams);
• apply different project management approaches; 
• resolve common issues in project management.

The primary target audience of this block are lecturers who (want to) teach about analytical thinking and problem solving in the domain of linguistics, translation and other language-related areas. Students can also use the materials autonomously, but should be aware that this is not a typical self-study course.